Achieving Improvement and Development of China-Canada Relations
Image credit, Tung Lam
LUO Weidong, Consul General of the People’s Republic of China in Toronto
During a recent Model United Nations event, I had an opportunity to exchange ideas with local high school students. Many young friends shared their concerns about the current international situation. They believed that mankind has a shared future and expected China to contribute to building a better world.
I would like to share my views, so as to help friends in our consular district better understand the vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind.
The world today is undergoing major changes unseen in a century. Human society faces unprecedented challenges, with expanding deficits in peace, development, security and governance. In this context, building a community with a shared future for mankind is how Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed to solve the questions of what kind of world to build and how to build it.
The past decade has witnessed a steady increase in the depth and scope of the vision. It has been developed from a promising concept to substantive actions.
In summary, in building a community with a shared future for mankind, the goal is to build an open, inclusive, clean and beautiful world of lasting peace, universal security and shared prosperity, the pathway is promoting global governance that features extensive consultation and joint contribution for shared benefit, the guiding principle is to apply the common values of humanity, the basic underpinning lies in building a new type of international relations, the strategic guidance comes from the implementation of the Global Development Initiative (GDI), the Global Security Initiative (GSI) and the Global Civilization Initiative (GCI), and the practical platform is promoting high-quality Belt and Road cooperation.
On this basis, we seek to bring countries together to meet challenges and achieve prosperity for all, and push the world towards a bright future of peace, security, prosperity and progress.
Furthermore, to build a community with a shared future for mankind advocates an equal and orderly multi-polar world and a universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization, where all countries, regardless of size, are treated as equals, the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter must be observed by all, the universally-recognized basic norms governing international relations must be upheld by all, and true multilateralism must be practiced.
It is important to jointly make the “pie” of economic globalization bigger and share it fairly, and oppose all forms of unilateralism and protectionism, to maintain the robust and dynamic growth of the world economy.
As influential countries in the Asia-Pacific region, both China and Canada are practitioners of multilateralism and beneficiaries of economic globalization. There is no fundamental conflict of interest between the two sides. China and Canada share extensive consensus and vast space for cooperation in areas such as safeguarding multilateralism, promoting free trade and addressing climate change.
Since I took office in last September, I was impressed by local friends’ friendliness and the flourishing opportunities for cooperation between the two countries in various fields. Last year, about 30 companies from Ontario and Manitoba participated in the 6th China International Import Expo and the first China Import China International Supply Chain Expo. Bethune Medical Development Association of Canada organized Canadian medical experts to carry out for voluntary clinics and academic exchanges in many hospitals in China.
This year has witnessed people from different communities in Greater Toronto Area celebrating the Year of the Dragon in various ways. Tickets for Chinese pianist Lang Lang’s concert in Toronto were rapidly sold out. The Fujian-Canada (Toronto) Economic and Trade Cooperation Conference was successfully held.
As a Chinese saying goes, “The journey ahead may be long and arduous, but with sustained actions, we will eventually reach our destination and embrace a brighter future.”
We stand ready to work with friends from all walks of life in Ontario and Manitoba to address various challenges and bring our bilateral relationship back on track at an early date on the basis of mutual respect, which will definitively bring more benefits to our two peoples and contribute to a bright future of peace, security, prosperity and progress for our world.
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